NOBLESSE OBLIGE
CLAN VENTRUE NEWSLETTER – AUGUST 2004
CONTENTS
1. Introduction
2. Dignitas
3. Sheperds and Stewards
4. Tribunes at work
5. Exit
6. Who’s to blame for this issue
7. Reference card texts
Introduction
Hello folks, I’m Manorr, the new writer cum editor of Clan
Ventrue’s esteemed newsletter. Before getting involved in this, I looked
back to see who had written what in the past…. and boy do I have an act to
follow, England’s own Inner Circle member – Rob Treasure! (with a dash of
Matt Green too).
Where Rob’s primary writing focussed on his
‘Agitation’ articles, in each issue I will look at one specific angle of
play for the Ventrue, for example: combat defence, pool gain, anarchy,
voting etc. If you haven’t been ‘Agitated’ I would strongly recommend that
you read them all as soon as possible. When two of the world’s best
players teach strategy, and you don’t have to pay to read it, what are you
waiting for.
I intend to bring out a newsletter at least once every two months
and have plenty to say. I’m also very interested to hear from other
players of our Clan, and will include an ‘Open Forum’ section in every
issue that someone else has something useful or humorous to say. I will
also review 1-2 vampires per issue, including those who are useful to play
alongside the Ventrue. Whenever new editions of the VTES come out, I will
review these soon after.
Having steadfastly refused to play any CCGs for ten years, I was
finally persuaded to purchase a Follower of Set deck when Final Nights was
released. Far too much money and thousands of vtes cards later, I am a sad
addict, hooked into yet more of White Wolf’s game (I’ve been playing and
ST-ing World of Darkness for twelve years, including the magnificent LARP
games, which I strongly recommend). White Wolf eats my soul –
aaarrggghhhhh !!!!!!!!!!!!
If I think I have something new to say about material that has been
included in previous Ventrue newsletters, then I will re-look at things.
Because new VTES editions can often change the way previous ideas, cards
and strategies work, it is sometimes important to review old ground.
I’m V:EKN Prince of Merseyside in the U.K. and would appreciate it,
if any players in Ireland and the Midlands or North of England would get
in touch. Fairly soon I will be setting up sanctioned tournaments, and
would like to travel to play with other players.
I never expected to write for the hated Ventrue. If the Tremere are
the Manchester United of the Camarilla, then the Ventrue are Chelsea.
Anyway, that’s enough from me…… on with the fray!
Dignitas – the dictats of the Directorate
This month the secret police of the Directorate investigate
non-clan disciplines within the clan; and discover mainly useful things,
mixed with a little oddness.
Amongst Clan Ventrue’s crypt, there are nine non-clan disciplines
at work. Two (Obtenerbration and Serpentis) are non-Camarilla based
disciplines, and only represented by one vampire each; the rest being a
good spread of classic Camarilla fare, though I’m sure the Tremere won’t
be too pleased to see other vampires with Thaumaturgy.
In my experience, the most common Ventrue deck seen with an extra
discipline included, is with Obfuscate, using mostly the clan’s high
capacity vamps, sometimes mixed with dodgy type like Settites (with
Dominate). There are seven Ventrue with Obfuscate – three in Group 2,
three in Group 3 and one in Group 4. Decks containing these guys make for
super-nasty stealth-bleed, vote, or both. This month’s deck helps
illustrate this. Catherine du Bois (Ventrue 6. DOM, pre, obf, for) is a
little piece of stealth-bleed heaven, and unsurprisingly appears in my
horrible Settites with Dominate bleed for silly amounts deck. I’m sure I
was a Settite in a past life (not sure I should admit to that, but having
read Rob’s agitations, maybe it gives me kudos instead – what a weird
world we card players live in ). Meanwhile,
she also makes a fantastic vote reactor, and is perfect for defending
Anarch Revolts or similar vote sensitive resources.
As most of us have suffered from the ever present Malkavian S/B, we
know what a horror Dominate + Obfuscate is. To be able play this with S:CE
and Votes from Presence, and combat resilience from Fortitude, is awesome
in the extreme. Think of the world’s biggest, boldest toolbox, and square
it…. know what I mean!
Having even basic Obfuscate is just so useful. You knock out a +1
stealth action (default Hunt, equip, whatever….), and some miserable Sod
on either side of you decides to wheel out their +1 intercept. Normally
that’s the end of your action. Fair enough you might have Seduced someone,
but that only works on one opponent, the extra stealth fits everyone up
simultaneously. If you are a vote deck, often +1 stealth is just not
enough. Yes your can dig up your Creepshow Casino, which is a godlike card
for many occasions, but, it taps to be used, so it can’t help all your
dudes. Overall, Obfuscate is a real winner for the Ventrue, you can even
use Swallowed by the Night to run away as well!
Since the Group 3 vampires arrived, there’s a lot more Auspex on
view in Ventrue based decks. This makes things really easy if you wish to
mix Ventrue with their disloyal traitorous Ventrue Antitribu cousins (poor
deluded fools!), and with other such characters as the Harbingers and
Salubri of both varieties. There’s only one in Group 1, three in Group 2,
five in Group 3 and none in Group 4. Looking at this makes it easier to
see where the Ventrue Antitribu got their Auspex from. Auspex is certainly
a lot more use for getting into combat than Presence, so fits the Sabbat
mould better. As almost all the Sabbat are also Group 2 & 3 vampires, this
makes for easy crypt building.
A nasty version of this is to turn out a Ventrue deck with 4
Harbinger of Skulls, with the a Lazarene Inquisitor, a few
Slaughterhouses, an Erebus mask, and the Erciyes Fragment. This allows for
the HoS to rapidly increase your Prey’s discard pile, giving the Erciyes
plenty of choice, and having enough intercept to prevent the Erciyes from
being stolen. It gets away from the ineffective 10 Slaughterhouse
strategy, which has proven largely ineffective at winning anything, other
than the eternal enmity of the player who was your prey when you used it.
The Ventrue Antitribu discipline mix isn’t exactly know for its
exciting dynamic game play, but by god they’ve got staying power in spades
– and that can be damn useful in tournaments sometimes. So maybe we true
blue Ventrue can learn something from the disenfranchised. However, it can
be too easy to fall into a Second Tradition + Auspex super Wall trap,
thinking you’ve got a deck no-one can beat, and actually achieve bugger
all, by failing to put enough pressure on anyone. Just sitting and waiting
does not serve modern tournament criteria very well. Ask any Liverpool
football club fans how excited they were about defending in numbers for 88
minutes, only then having a go too late in the day. 0-0 is not a victory,
it’s not even o.k., it just is.
The nice thing about Auspex is of course, stopping other folks from
achieving stuff; blocking their equips, votes, hunts etc. Many decks don’t
have any + stealth, so their normal stealth is only +1. So even small time
+ intercept can work wonders. Equally important is the use of Revelations
at the inferior level, to investigate your Prey’s hand, and throw away his
Archon Investigation, pool gain, bleed bounce, intercept, wakes etc. In
the military they call this ‘Force Multiplication’. For us this means
successfully bleeding for 3+ without having to worry to much. Using
revelations combined with a Monocle of Clarity can dynamically change your
bleed effectiveness.
Moving on, there are also nine different Ventrue with Celerity,
which could make for some handy combat combos, four in Group 1, three in
Group 2, one in Group 3, and one in Group 1. So a combat-toolboxy Group 1
and 2 deck can easily be put together. Admittedly, there aren’t exactly
millions of vampires hanging about with decent Fortitude and Celerity, but
decks can be cobbled together, and quite funky to play with – figure
strike, prevent loads of damage, Blur for more strikes, press or Psyche to
repeat the same sentence, ad nauseum. With even simple weapons, this can
be very effective.
I have an Assamite deck based on Fatima, Tegyrius and Tariq, which
uses Fortitude, Celerity and Auspex, with SMGs and no Quietus cards, and
the theory works. A Ventrue version would have better bleed bounce, and
bleed or votes, but likely be less aggressive. The Advanced Tegyrius is
also group 2, so could fit in happily with the blue bloods. Turning out a
Anathema based Fortitude, Presence, Celerity deck, with Justicar Tegyrius
and a voted in Ventrue Justicar means you could play stuff like PTO
(Protect Thine Own) and Temptation of Greater Power as well. Maybe we’ll
look at this in a future issue.
The next best represented discipline is Potence. There is one
Ventrue with Potence in Group 1, one in Group 2, two in Group 3 and none
yet in Group 4. POT DOM PRE FOR has to be a hell of basis for deck
building, although the results could be very multi-clan. Add in the two
Ventrue with Protean into this mix and you can conjure some horrible
decks. I have a Anarch deck built around FOR, PRE, POT, CEL, and PRO,
using the two protean wielding Ventrue in the crypt. Although the crypt is
top heavy, it is stacked with very very very nasty mothers, who dish out
hurt to anyone who upsets them. I don’t propose to post this deck here,
until I’ve seen whether it’s suitable for the Anarch Newsletter.
Here’s the crypt anyway:
* 3x Maxwell: Brujah 9. PRO, PRE, POT, FOR, CEL
* 1x Steve Booth: Brujah 5. CEL, pro, pre, pot
* 2x Hrothulf: Ventrue 8. PRE, FOR, CEL, pro, pot, dom
* 2x Boss Callihan: Ventrue 5. PRE, pro, for, dom
* 1x Jalan-Aajav: Gangrel Antitribu 9. PRO, POT, FOR, CEL
* 1x Zachary: Gangrel Antitribu 7. CEL, OBF, PRO, pre, for
* 1x Harry Reese: Gangrel Antitribu 6. Sabbat. FOR, PRO, obf, cel
* 1x Spider: Gangrel Antitribu 6. Sabbat, PRO, ani, for
“But mummy you said monsters didn’t exist” sighs little Christopher
Houghton, staring at the window, hugging his Pooh bear, and crying to his
Sire. Outside, Jalan-Aajav peeping in, mutters to himself “looked in the
mirror lately Christopher”, and bugs out before the ‘poor’ little sod
notices him.
There are now a number of smaller cap vampires with both Fortitude and
Potence, so good simple weenie rush is not so hard to achieve now.
I’ll leave the Animalism, Thaumaturgy, Serpentis and Obtenerbration in the
bucket for now (where it belongs), and march on to something hopefully
more constructive.
Sheperds and Stewards - Tales from the Crypt
Starting at the top of the pile, this month we’ll have a look at
Arika (again). Firstly let me point out that there has been good stuff
already written in the May.2001 and August.2001 newsletters. My musings
complement those articles and decks.
Name: Arika
Clan: Ventrue
Group: 2
Capacity: 11
Discipline: aus cel DOM FOR OBF PRE
Camarilla Inner Circle: If Arika is ready during your prey's untap phase,
your prey chooses which locations he or she keeps in play. For each
location he or she controls, your prey burns 1 pool or burns the location.
+2 bleed.
Arika has to be the ultimate self contained offence-defence
machine. She’s Group 2, so can work with most everyone. She can Freak
Drive and therefore knock out a couple of actions per round or happily
leave herself untapped ready to Deflect, intercept with Obedience, and
even Majesty keeps her up and going. In this mode she can happily bat away
a good few minions per round. She is so good at defence that she easily
merits the cost of using a Metro Underground to untap her at the end of a
round.
Her wondrous ability to play severely damaging cards, win votes,
great special ability and hold down the table can easily make her a target
for the whole table. Your predator may get support from other Methusalahs
or be given some slack, in order to do her in one way or the other. Your
grand-prey may also be quite keen for your prey to exist for sometime and
may well play with this in mind. For example: by not damaging too much,
your prey’s minions when blocked, or allowing the odd Consanguinous Boon
through. Your grand-prey may well want to build some, leaving your
predator alone.
As she can win the game for you, you really need to seriously
protect her. A Secure Haven is a very good place to start, as is an
Elysium: Arboretum. Obedience is only useful when she is blocking, and not
for when she is acting, so you need combat defence as well. A mix of
Majesty, Skin of Steel and Swallowed by the Night (for running long) are
my preference. A superior Elemental Stoicism can be handy too, though they
are not exactly easy to come by. Remember though that if she is rushed,
ambushed etc, it is much better for her to block and use Obedience.
So what is she really afraid of ? - Sensory Deprivation, AI,
Immortal Grapple based combat, Psyche and Telepathic Tracking. If she is
successfully Sensory Deprived, she can still vote and use cards like Wake
with Evening’s Freshness to play reaction cards. She can also have a Blood
Doll put on her. She could also play Force of Will, but I certainly
wouldn’t want to go down that road. One possible way to help with this is
to pack a Blood Hunt, and put it on the offending Ravnos who was cheeky
enough to mess with Arika. This would allow both you and their predator to
have a pop at will.
Immortal Grapple based combat, using Torn Signpost, strike,
additional strikes, press, strike, additional strikes inc’ Aggravated
damage at some point – as we all know, this is hell on legs, so if at all
possible run long and wave or combat ends as soon as possible. If you
can’t escape, as I mentioned, Skin of Steel is my card of choice, purely
because it can deal with a whole round of damage for one blood. I use SoS
a lot, purely in case I meet additional strikes. Psyche and Telepathic
Tracking are just a pain, so you have to pack enough combat defence to
deal with this.
So anyway, enough of the depressing stuff, Arika is just downright
offensive – well you would be if you got your own way all the time, look
at Michael Jackson or Madonna. She is capable of stunningly large bleeds,
however her bleed can be highly irresponsible , and can therefore be a
liability. She should be supported by a Monocle of Clarity to check if
your prey has an AI (Archon Investigation), and the use of inferior
Revelations to remove an AI or bleed bounce from your prey’s hand.
Charmingly, with a Freak Drive she can use her own Revelations, untap the
get her bleed in, try this version: Legal Manipulations (or Social Charm
if you need to conserve blood), Seduction, Obfuscate based stealth
(preferably Faceless Night and Lost in Crowds), finished off with
Conditioning (or Threats if you need to conserve blood), means a bleed of
6-8 costing 0-2 blood. She can also go down the ‘you can’t block’ route
and use Elder Impersonation too.
--- Like she needs to Impersonate anyone!
I like to think of Arika the other way, for example, by pretending
to be Dimple. This appeals much more to me. As this is totally irrelevant
to the game, please feel free to ignore it, or hurl abuse at me instead
(water meet the duck’s back ……).
Bleed bounce will of course cause you lots of problems with Arika
bleeds, and I propose to devote some time in a future issue to looking at
how we can deal with this major problem. Bounce is very common in my local
metagroup, so I’ve looked carefully at this.
As well as being ‘Miss Camarilla bleed queen’ of the month, she is
also Miss Bloat queen, although you wouldn’t say that to her face. She can
‘Govern’ out the best of them, this being a handy way to justify her large
pool cost. Minion Tap with Giant’s Blood, Voter Captivation, Palatial
Estate, Restoration or Entrenching is also a great way to recoup pool.
Note that she needs blood to power various actions, combat defence and
Deflection, so it’s important to keep her topped up. With this in mind, a
Blood Doll should be put on her as soon as possible. The ability to
transfer blood back into her from your pool could be a life saver.
The ability negotiate and cut deals is of paramount importance in
many games. Arika with a Ventrue Headquarters in play gives us seven
votes.This can give you a large amount of table vote control, even if you
aren’t playing a vote deck. With this in mind it is always worth having a
few vote cards with her in play, as some tables have very few votes on the
table. For offensive voting, using her with a Bewitching Oration gives
eight votes, or eleven with the HQ.
As she is one of the chosen few who can use the best version of PTO
(Protect Thine Own), you should always play at least one. She can also
play the wonderful Alastor if you want to play offensive combat. Using
this card gives you permanent rush, and saves you an equip action or a
disguised/concealed weapon card, and brings out an Ivory Bow for no pool,
a .44 for 1 pool or a flamethrower for 2. I think that if you are going to
play an 11 capacity vote machine, you should always also include a Reins
of Power and an Ancient Influence.
Here is a general module you could include when playing Arika:
* 2-4 Obedience – keeps her untapped, and therefore helps maximise her
power and cost
* 2-4 Deflection – to stay untapped and therefore maximise her power and
cost
* 2-4 Majesty – to become untapped again, and therefore maximise …….
* 3+ Govern the Unaligned
* 2+ Freak Drive – to get the most out of the 11 pool she costs, by doing
multiple actions per turn
* 1-2 Swallowed by the Night – i.e. stealth or manuever
* 2 Cloak the Gathering – for giving herself or other minions Stealth
* 1-2 Protect Thine Own
* 1 Blood Doll
* 1 Monocle of Clarity – to check if the other Methusalah’s are packing
and AI (Archon Investigation), and to see if your prey has any bleed
bounce or other awkward cards in their hand
* 1 Secure Haven
* 1+ Zillah’s Valley or Information Highway – to get her in play as soon
as possible
* 2+ Skin of Steel
Other very useful cards include:
* 1-2 Seduction – she can bypass all vampires except the 11 caps
* 1 Entrenching, Cooler or Palatial Estate – to keep her blood topped-up
* 1 Elemental Stoicism – simple combat protection
* 1+ Alastor
* 1 Elysium: Arboretum
* 1+ Minion Tap
* 1 Metro Underground – often the advantage of having her untapped, far
outways the pool cost to untap her
* 1 Fueled by Heart’s Blood – so she can diablerise without worrying about
Blood Hunts (I find this card very appealing for Arika)
* 1+ Legacy of Power – I use this when Arika is working with weenies. When
my weenie blocks or is blocked by a dangerous enemy vampire, play this
card to mess with the other Methusalah’s brain. Imagine the situation,
Thetmes Bum’s Rushes Arika, my 3rd Tradition weenie blocks, which under
normal circumstances means end-of-weenie time, HOWEVER…. Arika pops up and
throws out a Legacy of Power, leading to one torpored weenie, and one
torpored Thetmes, which is way cool any way you look at it. Even better if
one of your crew can diablerise, because you have so many votes on the
table, that you can get away with it. So instead of only playing
Obedience, think about playing 1-2 Legacy instead.
* Some form of Ally, to attempt to prevent Sensory Deprivation and any
other ‘vampires can’t block’ effects
Tribunes at work - Decks of the Month
Deck name: Inner Smile of the Corporate Divas
Ventrue Toolbox with Obfuscate.
The inherent bleed of the minions is critical for this deck,
allowing it to act as a basic Stealth Bleed if needed. The Political Ally
pays for himself with his first bleed; after that he really is a right
nasty bleeder. Tapping your prey’s main clan with Consanguineous
Condemnation allows you to get in a round of useful bleeds – a great card
against a mono-clan deck, and a waste of space against multi-clan
line-ups. Using Chain of Command to bring out Marcus Vitell or Queen Anne,
kinda suprises some folk. Even as a one-shot deal, they are well worth
this card’s inclusion.
Winning votes is key for pool gain, hence the additional vote
Masters; and this, combined with 6 pool gain Masters, Information Highway
and Zillah’s Valley, should allow you to bring out 4 big vampires. Even
against a table with quite a few titled vampires in play, you should have
enough vote power to get through most votes without having to cross-table
deal too much. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t deal though!
The Metro Underground, Freak Drives and 9 Wakes are to allow all
these very high-cap dudes to keep busy every turn, and then to be able to
react. Arika, Marcus, Queen Anne and Lucinde are all superb ‘guards’,
deflecting, using Obedience etc. The damage prevention and weapons are
handy for keeping weenies and non-Celerity based combat down. The logic
here being to vote in any of the vampires with FOR as an Alastor, which
allows them to equip with a .44 at a cost of 1 pool (rather than the usual
2). The Alastor can the be used to +1 stealth rush against suitable small
vulnerable targets. This can be very handy against weenie bleed decks and
no offensive combat decks, as there’s no way that you can block and/or
deflect a weenie horde forever.
Using some Second Tradition at first seems rather obvious. BUT,,,,
you must attempt to block, this could easily lead to combat, and you
really want to avoid that as much as possible. Wake, Deflect, I like that
much better!
As has been stated many times before, PTO (Protect Thine Own) is
one wholly mother of a card, capable of radically changing the dynamics of
the table. Initially it seems obvious to remove your Prey’s biggest
minion. I disagree with this believing that we should not have rules like
this, and should view each situation on its own merits. For example I
recently played against a Settite politics deck using Gloria Giovanni as
bleed bouncer from hell. The choice to burn would then be a). the largest
available offensive Settite or b). Gloria. If my Grandprey had very low
pool I would burn the biggest attacker. If my prey couldn’t kill their
prey quickly, I would kill Gloria, allowing me to get on with the
slaughter.
Crypt:
4x Arika: Ventrue 11. Camarilla Inner Circle. If she’s ready during Prey’s
untap, Prey loses 1 Pool or burns each location, +2 Bleed. PRE, DOM, FOR,
OBF, cel, aus
2x Marcus Vitel: Ventrue 10. Camarilla Prince. Burn a retainer as a +1
Stealth action. PRE, OBT, OBF, FOR, DOM
2x Queen Anne: Ventrue 10. Camarilla Prince. +1 Bleed, +1 additional Bleed
vs Tremere. PRE, DOM, FOR, aus, obf
1x Lucinde Alastor: Ventrue 10. Camarilla Justicar. Enter combat with
non-Camarilla vampire. PRE, DOM, FOR, obf, tha, pot
1x Catherine du Bois: Ventrue 6. Camarilla. DOM, pre, obf, fort
1x Suzanna Kadim: Toreador 7. Camarilla. +1 Bleed. PRE, CEL, obf, dom,
aus
1x J.Oswald Hyde-White: Malkavian 8. Camarilla Primogen. Untap, roll D6,
1-2 = +1 Stealth, 5-6 +1 Bleed and +1 Strength. OBF, FOR, AUS, pre, dom
Library: 90 cards
3x Blood Doll
3x Minion Tap
1x Uptown Hunting Ground
1x Zillah’s Valley
1x Information Highway
1x Secure Haven
1x Anarch Troublemaker
1x Effective Management
1x Ventrue Headquarters
1x Elysium: Palace of Versailles
1x Metro Underground
1x Rumour Mill, Tabloid Newspaper
1x Fueled by Heart’s Blood
3x Govern the Unaligned
1x Chain of Command
2x Judgement: Camarilla Segregation
4x Conditioning
2x Freak Drive
2x Swallowed by the Night
2x Cloak the Gathering
1x Faceless Night
1x Spying Mission
3x Lost in Crowds
1x Ancient Influence
1x Kindred Restructure
2x Protect Thine Own
1x Reigns of Power
2x Alastor
1x Consanguineous Condemnation (maybe could be replaced with another Voter
Captivation)
1x Voter Captivation
3x Closed Session
6x Bewitching Oration
10x Wake with Evening’s Freshness
7x Deflection
1x Redirection
5x Obedience
3x Majesty
6x Skin of Steel
2x .44 Magnum
1x Palatial Estate
1x Political Ally
A more combaty version of this could replace the Majesty with more
Fortitude and a Disguised Weapon, and half of the WWEFs with Second
Tradtions. Exchanging the Chain of Command for a Ritual of the Bitter Rose
or Amaranth, could provide a real bitchy twist too.
The second deck of the month’s illustrates Ventrue use of Auspex.
There’s nothing special about this deck, it’s just stealth bleed using
Revelations and the Monocle to help get bleeds in. It’s pure Vanilla, with
no chocolate or sauce. The Kine Dominance and Dominate Kine are heavy on
blood usage, as are Revelations, Skin of Steel and Deflection. They are
however, vital to the deck’s forward pressure and combat survivability. To
balance this out, and allow the Blood Dolls to do their job, I’ve included
Aaron's Feeding Razor, Palatial Estate and four Restoration.
Probably this deck’s worst feature is its predictability. It is
archetypal of what people view the Ventrue as, either bleed, or vote or
both. The deck is tight and goes pretty well, and was put together to see
if the Ventrue could do vanilla stealth bleed. The answer is basically
yes. Note though that this deck will die if it’s Prey is a ‘Wall’ deck or
packs eight+ bleed bounce. Approximation of Loyalty could get round some
bounce, but this would mean upping the Crypt, and I really wanted to
feature a mid-cap deck, which are not seen as much as the high-cap board
of directors crew.
Deck name: Wall Street Shuffle
Crypt:
2x Edward Vignes: Ventrue 6. Camarilla. PRE, DOM, for
2x Gracis Nostinus: Ventrue 7. Camarilla Primogen. A younger vampire
failing to block him is tapped. PRE, DOM, for, aus
2x Alan Sovereign: Ventrue 6. Camarilla. DOM, AUS, pre, for
2x Ranjan Rishi, Camarilla Scholar: Ventrue 5. Camarilla. DOM, PRE, for
1x Iyana Ravidovitch: Ventrue 5. Camarilla. Burn a blood to gain
Intercept. pre, dom, for, aus
1x Elena Gutierrez: Ventrue 4. Camarilla. pre, for, aus
1x Horatio Ballard: Ventrue 7. Camarilla. PRE, DOM, FOR, aus
1x J.Oswald Hyde-White: Malkavian 8. Camarilla Primogen. Untap, roll D6,
1-2 = +1 Stealth, 5-6 +1 Bleed and +1 Strength. OBF, FOR, AUS, pre, dom
Library:
4x Blood Doll
1x Minion Tap
1x Uptown Hunting Ground
1x KRGC News Radio
1x Sudden Reversal
1x Direct Intervention
1x Fortitude
1x Elysium: The Arboretum
1x Anarch Troublemaker
1x Ventrue Headquarters
1x Regarhagan's Hold
2x Hostile Takeover
1x Entrancement
4x Restoration
5x Scouting Mission
1x Kine Dominance
3x Dominate Kine
5x Revelations
11x Bonding
5x Seduction
1x Freak Drive
8x Wake with Evening's Freshness
7x Deflection
1x Redirection
1x Spirit's Touch
1x Enhanced Senses
1x Precogition
7x Majesty
5x Skin of Steel
1x Sports Bike
1x Monocle of Clarity
1x Aaron's Feeding Razor
1x Mr.Winthrop
1x Palatial Estate
Exit
I would be mucho happy to receive comment, criticism, articles, reviews,
fiction, decks etc from anyone who wishes to contribute towards this
newsletter. It would be very interesting to all of us, to see how Ventrue
players win, and to see angles they have used to have carved up particular
style of deck.
If you choose to send me a deck, then by all means include any information
about why your deck was put together, strategies, card combinations, crypt
choice, and so on. For those of you into creating new card designs, I will
certainly look at those as well.
By all means send me Anarch based Ventrue stuff, but send it to the Anarch
newsletter as well if you can. I will work out who’s doing what with the
Anarch writer.
Who’s to blame for this issue
This month’s issue was written and compiled by David Knowles
(manorr2001@yahoo.com)
Reference card texts from White Wolf’s Site
Name: Alastor
Cardtype: Political Action
Political Card - Worth 1 Vote. Called by any justicar or Inner Circle
member at +1 stealth.
Choose a ready Camarilla vampire. If this referendum is successful, search
your library for an equipment card and place this card and the equipment
on the chosen vampire. Pay half the cost (round down) of the equipment.
This vampire may enter combat with any vampire controlled by another
Methuselah as a +1 stealth (D) action. This vampire cannot commit
diablerie. A vampire may have only one Alastor.
Name: Protect Thine Own
Cardtype: Political Action
Cost: 1 blood
Political Card - Worth 1 Vote. Called by any justicar or Inner Circle
member at +1 stealth.
Choose a non-Camarilla vampire with a capacity below 6. If the acting
vampire is a member of the Inner Circle, you may choose any non-Camarilla
vampire instead. If this referendum is successful, burn that vampire.
Name: Reins of Power
Cardtype: Political Action
Political Card - Worth 1 Vote. Called by any vampire at +1 stealth.
Successful referendum means each Methuselah may choose a ready vampire he
or she controls. Each Methuselah gains 6 pool. Each Methuselah also burns
an amount of pool equal to the capacity of his or her predator's chosen
vampire. Only one Reins of Power can be played in a game.
Name: Ancient Influence
Cardtype: Political Action
Political Card - Worth 1 Vote. Called by any vampire at +1 stealth.
Successful referendum means each Methuselah may choose a ready vampire he
or she controls. Each Methuselah gains an amount of pool from the blood
bank equal to his or her chosen vampire's capacity. Each Methuselah then
burns 5 pool. Only 1 Ancient Influence can be played in a game.
Name: Legacy of Power
Cardtype: Reaction
Cost: 3 blood
Requires ready prince, justicar, or Inner Circle Member. Only usable when
a vampire you control enters combat.
A second vampire you control may play this card to end combat. Tap the
second vampire. Combat ends. Both vampires engaged in combat go into
torpor.
Name: Fueled by Heart's Blood
Cardtype: Event
Gehenna. Do not replace until a vampire commits diablerie.
Put 10 counters on this card. Remove one counter each time another Gehenna
card is put in play. A blood hunt cannot be called on a vampire whose
capacity is greater than the number of counters on this card when he or
she diablerizes a younger vampire.
Name: Elemental Stoicism
Cardtype: Action/Combat
Discipline: Fortitude & Obfuscate
[for] Prevent 1 non-aggravated damage.
[for][obf] This vampire treats all aggravated damage as normal damage for
the remainder of combat.
[FOR][obf] +1 stealth action. Put this card on this acting vampire. The
vampire with this card treats aggravated damage done in combat as normal
damage. Burn this card if the vampire goes to torpor.
Name: Alan Sovereign
Cardtype: Vampire
Clan: Ventrue
Group: 3
Capacity: 6
Discipline: for pre AUS DOM
Camarilla: When you play an investment card, add an additional counter to
it from the blood bank.
Name: Arika
Cardtype: Vampire
Clan: Ventrue
Group: 2
Capacity: 11
Discipline: aus cel DOM FOR OBF PRE
Camarilla Inner Circle: If Arika is ready during your prey's untap phase,
your prey chooses which locations he or she keeps in play. For each
location he or she controls, your prey burns 1 pool or burns the location.
+2 bleed.
Name: Bindusara, Historian of the Kindred
Cardtype: Vampire
Clan: Ventrue
Group: 2
Capacity: 9
Discipline: tha AUS DOM FOR PRE
Camarilla: Bindusara can take an action to allow you to search your
library for an Arcane Library, Elder Library or Fragment of the Book of
Nod; put that card in play. (Pay cost as normal.) Shuffle your library
afterward. +1 bleed.
Name: Boss Callihan
Cardtype: Vampire
Clan: Ventrue
Group: 3
Capacity: 5
Discipline: dom for pro PRE
Camarilla: Callihan cannot rescue other vampires from torpor.
Name: Catherine du Bois
Cardtype: Vampire
Clan: Ventrue
Group: 3
Capacity: 5
Discipline: for obf pre DOM
Camarilla.
Name: Democritus
Cardtype: Vampire
Clan: Ventrue
Group: 1
Capacity: 10
Discipline: aus cel for DOM PRE
{Camarilla} Ventrue Justicar: If Democritus is ready, any Methuselah
contesting a card with you burns 1 extra pool to avoid yielding that card.
+1 bleed.
Name: Elena Gutierrez
Cardtype: Vampire
Clan: Ventrue
Group: ={3}=
Capacity: 4
Discipline: aus dom pre
Camarilla.
Name: Emerson Bridges
Cardtype: Vampire
Clan: Ventrue
Group: 1
Capacity: 8
Discipline: pot DOM FOR PRE
{Camarilla} Prince of Washington, D.C.
Name: Gracis Nostinus
Cardtype: Vampire
Clan: Ventrue
Group: 3
Capacity: 7
Discipline: aus for DOM PRE
Camarilla Primogen: If a younger vampire attempts to block Gracis and
fails, that vampire is tapped at the end of the action.
Name: Helena Casimir
Cardtype: Vampire
Clan: Ventrue
Group: 1
Capacity: 9
Discipline: cel for DOM POT PRE
{Camarilla} Primogen: +1 bleed.
Name: Horatio Ballard
Cardtype: Vampire
Clan: Ventrue
Group: 3
Capacity: 7
Discipline: aus DOM FOR PRE
Camarilla: If Horatio doesn't have a title, he can call a referendum to
become the Prince of Chicago as a +1 stealth political action.
Name: Hrothulf
Cardtype: Vampire
Clan: Ventrue
Group: 3
Capacity: 8
Discipline: dom pot pro CEL FOR PRE
Camarilla: If you control the Edge, Hrothulf can burn it to enter combat
with a ready minion controlled by another Methuselah as a (D) action.
Name: Ilyana Ravidovich
Cardtype: Vampire
Clan: Ventrue
Group: 3
Capacity: 5
Discipline: aus dom for pre
Camarilla: You get 2 extra votes in {referendums to call} blood hunts
against Ilyana. Once each action, Ilyana may burn 1 blood to get +1
intercept.
Name: Itzahk Levine
Cardtype: Vampire
Clan: Ventrue
Group: 2
Capacity: 3
Discipline: cel pre
Camarilla
Name: Jan Pieterzoon
Cardtype: Vampire
Clan: Ventrue
Group: 2
Capacity: 7
Discipline: pot pre DOM FOR
Camarilla: While Jan is ready, every Methuselah's hand size is reduced by
1. +1 bleed.
Name: Jan Pieterzoon
Cardtype: Vampire
Clan: Ventrue
Level: Advanced
Group: 2
Capacity: 7
Discipline: pot pre DOM FOR
Advanced, Independent: Jan may burn 3 blood to cancel a Gehenna card as it
is played.
[MERGED ICON] If Jan is Independent and there are any Gehenna cards in
play, Jan gets 3 additonal votes in each referendum.
Name: Katarina Kornfeld
Cardtype: Vampire
Clan: Ventrue
Group: 3
Capacity: 8
Discipline: ani DOM FOR PRE
Camarilla primogen: If another ready vampire you control is a prince,
Katarina gets +1 stealth.
Name: Lucinde Alastor
Cardtype: Vampire
Clan: Ventrue
Group: 3
Capacity: 10
Discipline: pot obf tha DOM FOR PRE
Camarilla Ventrue Justicar: Lucinde can enter combat with any ready
non-Camarilla vampire controlled by another Methuselah as a (D) action.
During your untap phase, you can burn the Edge to give Lucinde 1 blood
from the blood bank.
Name: Marcus Vitel
Cardtype: Vampire
Clan: Ventrue
Group: 3
Capacity: 10
Discipline: DOM FOR OBF OBT PRE
Camarilla Prince of Washington, D.C.: Marcus can burn a retainer as a +1
stealth (D) action. While Marcus is ready and a prince, Sabbat vampires
you control get +1 bleed when bleeding a Methuselah who controls a ready
Camarilla vampire.
Name: Melissa Barton
Cardtype: Vampire
Clan: Ventrue
Group: 1
Capacity: 5
Discipline: cel dom for pre
{Camarilla:}
If a Methuselah {burns} the Edge for a vote, Melissa gains 1 blood.
Name: Mustafa, The Heir
Cardtype: Vampire
Clan: Ventrue
Group: 4
Capacity: 6
Discipline: cel dom FOR PRE
Camarilla Prince of Istanbul: Once each political action, any older
Toreador controlled by another Methuselah can move 1 blood to Mustafa to
force him to cast his votes as that Toreador's controller chooses.
Name: Natasha Volfchek
Cardtype: Vampire
Clan: Ventrue
Group: 1
Capacity: 9
Discipline: cel dom pot FOR PRE
{Camarilla} Primogen: Natasha gets +1 stealth on political actions. +1
bleed.
Name: Queen Anne
Cardtype: Vampire
Clan: Ventrue
Group: 2
Capacity: 10
Discipline: aus obf DOM FOR PRE
Camarilla Prince of London: Anne gets an additional +1 bleed when bleeding
a Methuselah who controls a ready Tremere. +1 bleed.
Name: Robin Withers
Cardtype: Vampire
Clan: Ventrue
Group: 4
Capacity: 4
Discipline: dom obf pre
Camarilla.
Name: Suhailah
Cardtype: Vampire
Clan: Ventrue
Group: 2
Capacity: 9
Discipline: pot ser FOR OBF
Camarilla Prince of Cairo: Suhailah gets +1 stealth on each of her actions
if your prey has a ready prince or justicar. +1 bleed.
Name: Timothy Crowley
Cardtype: Vampire
Clan: Ventrue
Group: 1
Capacity: 7
Discipline: ani dom FOR PRE
{Camarilla} Prince of Dallas
Name: Victorine Lafourcade
Cardtype: Vampire
Clan: Ventrue
Group: 3
Capacity: 8
Discipline: tha DOM FOR PRE
Camarilla Prince of Atlanta: When a vampire of capacity less than 5 is
bleeding you, you may burn the Edge to cause the action to fail. Victorine
gets an optional press each combat.
Name: Wilhelm Waldburg
Cardtype: Vampire
Clan: Ventrue
Group: 2
Capacity: 9
Discipline: aus cel DOM FOR PRE
Camarilla Prince of Berlin: If Wilhelm's title is contested, the cost of
contesting is increased by 1 blood for the other vampire(s).